Hello all,
I'm new to this forum although over the last few months I've been updating my progress over on Detailing World. I'm going to upload all of the content from there onto here, so apologies if the time frames done quite make sense!
I purchased this car in September 2017, I had been searching for a little 205 for a year or so, but never found one local, and nearly all of them needed a lot of work. (that also turned out to be the case with the one i've bought!)
With GTI prices sky rocketing, I decided to go for a slightly cheaper but just as good alternative, a little CTI. The market for these is very hit and miss, not many around, and not many good examples.
I found this 1986 Space Grey Phase 1 205 around 2 hours away. Chap had owned it for 2 years, driven it a handful of times and kept it in a large empty unit of which he had free use of due to being the site maintenance man of a large industrial estate. The bonus of this is that the car had been dry stored for the last 2 years of its life.
I initially walked away from the car due to it needing paintwork, engine work and interior work, however the 2 hour car journey home soon let me change my mind, I later called him with an offer, to which he accepted.
Add photos:
Collection day:
And soon it was next to my restored MK1 VTS: (which I have since regrettable sold on)
First job was to go through all the paperwork and date organise it and file it correctly, there was plenty to get through!
The original dealer 'stag hill' had done a lot of the servicing on the vehicle in its early life.
Next I moved onto giving the old girl a good check over, carried out a full service, replaced the timing belt and waterpump, radiator, thermostat and replaced all the cooling hoses with some replacement hoses from BakerBM.
As you can see in this image, the coolant consisted of nothing but K seal, something that later down the line came back to haunt me... more on that later.
Timing belt covers where all broken and in need of replacement!
Good second hand upper covers where sourced, and a modified re-made lower metal cover was purchased. (plastic lower cover is prone to breaking)
Whilst waiting on new parts, I sourced the correct 1.6 phase 1 pepperpot alloys and had them powdercoated and new Pirelli P1s put on.
With the engine service all complete, I installed the new wheels and assessed the bodywork.
Bodywork is not to bad, unfortunately someone had decided to paint the trims black whilst leaving them on the car! :wall: they where kind enough to mask with 2 inch masking tape next to the trim but nothing else!! Which resulted in a ********** line of overspray, all around the car. Shocking.
On the plus side, the engine bay was looking good with a new battery, powdercoated airbox and correct period jack all installed.
Interior condition is not horrendous, however some of the dash plastic trim is broken and needs replacing, which is incredibly hard to source!
A few weeks later... replacement matts, correct phillips headunit and a bit of TLC.
I moved onto the bodywork issues, a few weekends work with the polish and tar remover saw the bodywork back to life. The NSR quarter will require paint though.